By Philomina Attah
Abuja – Mr Kingsley Bangwell, Executive Director, Youngstars Development Initiative, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), says monetisation of politics is a major factor hindering women participation in Nigeria.
He disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday, at the launch of Women in Politics Compendium in partnership with the Youngstars Development Initiative.
Bangwell, also the book author says, “One of the challenges facing women aspirants is the monetisation of political campaigns and lack of financial resources to compete”.
He added that women holding elective positions in the country constituted just about 5.6 per cent, this figure he said is not good enough for the women folk.
“Currently, we have six women out of 109 senators and 22 women out of 360 members of the House of Representatives making Nigeria one of the least in Africa.
“Of course Rwanda tops the list with 68 per cent in the continent.
“The shape compendium is the handbook that captures the amazing stories of Nigerian women who have ventured into the challenging, difficult water of Nigerian politics.
“These women we call them icons. They have gone into these space, they made progress and have stories to share. As a nation and society, we have not devoured time to capture the experiences of these women,’’ he said.
Bangwell added: “We came together in partnership with United Nations Women Office in Nigeria to put together this project.
“For a start, we looked at 20 women across the six geo political zones who had had political office experience and we asked them to share their stories. It was quite an interesting experience,” he said.
He further stated that the nation would agree with him that women are great managers at home, adding that, they should be given the opportunity to lead and partake in decision making processes.
“Everybody will agree with me that women are great managers at home. If they can manage our homes well, why not extend that to the wider space especially the political space.
“Our nation has not reached its full potential because of the leadership gap. But with this handbook, we can deal with that narrative by encouraging more women into politics.
Mr Lansara Wonneh, Deputy Representative, UNWomen, questioned why the country should not have more women actively involved in politics since Nigeria is the giant of Africa.
He added that any country that does not have good statistics of women in politics would not make progress, calling for a change in the system that would encourage women; especially the younger ones participate in politics.
He noted that it was about time women should be given the chance to manage the country, adding that women in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya and South African are doing relatively well.
Sen. Chris Anyanwu, representing Imo East at the National Assembly, urged Nigerians to do more in order to capture what women have contributed to the society for future use.
She added that men have been ruling the country since independence and the results are there, adding that it was time to give women the platform to contribute their quota to the country’s development.
On her part, Mrs Maureen Tamuno, the book reviewer, stated that the book tends to captured experiences of 20 women cutting across the six geo-political zones of the country.
“The book has story to tell about women from the Northern part of the country.
Highlight of the event was the unavailing of the handbook titled “Showcasing Her Abilities in Political Engagements (SHAPE) by the UNWomen representative Mr Lansara Wonneh. (NAN)